“So I know you’ve been gently telling me for a while that the bill might not go anywhere. Well, my friend reminded me of something you and others here have also been trying to tell me: I can keep fighting for the bill, but I can do other things to help the cause of criminal justice reform. What if we had town halls in marginalized communities all around California—to find out what people most care about, to figure out other ways to help them, and so they know we’re listening to them and working for them, instead of just trying to fight a possibly losing battle? We might even try to get state legislators involved, see if we can change some California law in the process.”

Kara nodded slowly.

“Hmm. I like this idea, sir.” She flipped open her notebook and scrawled a few lines. “It’ll take a lot of work—from both the DC and local staffs, but I think everyone will be excited about it.”

Max rubbed his hands together. He couldn’t wait to tell Olivia this.

“Fantastic,” he said. “Maybe the first one could be in a few weeks? I could do one every Friday afternoon for the next few months!”

Kara laughed out loud.

“Excuse me, sir. I’m sorry, but no. A few weeks? This will take a great deal of planning and coordination; it’ll take closer to a few months for us to do this right.”

Sometimes he was happy that he had a staff who would tell it to him like it was and not jump to satisfy his every whim, even if those whims were ridiculous. But when they laughed at him like this … okay, fine, he was still happy about it, just less happy.

“Right, I didn’t think about that,” he said.

Kara flipped through her calendar.

“Plus, your schedule is pretty packed for the next few months, what with it being an election year and all. You have at least one fundraiser almost every week until I don’t know when.”

This was the problem with having someone on your staff whose literal job it was to schedule your time—he had no idea what was on his calendar from week to week.

“Nobody in Congress wants to vote for my bill, but they still want me at their fundraisers, huh?” he asked.

Kara looked up at him, a wry smile on her face.

“You know how this town works—you get a lot of headlines and buzz, so whether or not they want to vote for your bill, they still want you to make speeches to get people to throw dollars toward their campaigns.”

Kara made another note, then looked up at him.